Want to know what tempts the SC’s palate? Let her talk for 30 minutes with the lovely Claire Robinson, host of 5 Ingredient Fix, about the awesome recipes coming up on her new episodes, which start this Saturday. Two words: doggie bag!

SECRETARY CONFIDENTIAL: Claire, you’re back with a new season. How exciting! And this time we get even more food fun – thirteen episodes instead of just six. Was shooting them double the work, or was it easier the second time around?

CLAIRE ROBINSON: It was so much fun. This time I felt like I had flexibility to play with different kinds of menus because I had more shows. For example, on one episode I do a no-cook dinner where I don’t turn on the oven or stove for the entire show. I did an all Southern-inspired theme called “Southern Soiree in the City,” which is the first episode–I bring a little country to the Big Apple.

SC: Do you test your recipes on anyone?

CR: Oh, yes! Each recipe should be tested at least four times before I think it’s a perfect recipe. So, it might take me 20 times to get the recipe exactly where I want it. Then I test it four times in four different types of ovens and stoves. I’ll test it out on my husband, friends, my neighbors and my doorman. My doorman will leave notes on each empty plate offering his thoughts on the dish, like “I thought this one needed a little more kick,” or “This one was so good,” or “Needs more salt.”

SC: Do you have any dish about the new season to whet our appetites? It seems like you have no borders with your cooking.

CR: Yes, it’s the way I love to cook. I feel as though the new American cooking these days is food from all over the world. There is not one specific kind of American cuisine anymore. I really tried to show that in each of the menus. Probably one of my favorites is the “Sunset Alfresco” episode, which features seared sea scallops with a saffron aioli, a roasted beet salad with toasted hazelnuts and orange segments, and a green goddess rice. The colors of this plate will knock your socks off. It kind of looks like a sunset, and the smells that hit you are intoxicating.

SC: You’re sending over a doggie bag, right? It’s almost lunchtime.

CR: Ha-ha! Of course!

SC: Has there ever been a sixth ingredient you were dying to throw into one of your recipes? How hard is it to narrow down your ingredients to five?

CR: There are times I’d like to add a sixth or even a seventh. That’s when I rework the recipe because I don’t want to take a bite and feel like “Gosh, if I just was able to add this one other thing, it would have been perfect.”

SC: Now, rumor is that you sometimes eat the food you’re cooking with before the production crew can finish filming (can’t blame you)! Of the ingredients you work with on your show, what are the hardest to resist before the cameras stop rolling?

CR: Bacon!

SC: That was quick.

CR: Oh my gosh, I think that the kitchen was about to come out and put a meat fork in me. I was eating [the bacon] so fast. I’m constantly nibbling on it while were getting ready to shoot, By the time we’re going to shoot, it is all gone. Bacon — It’s a dangerous thing.

There ya have it, FN Dishers. Check out Claire Robison’s new season of 5 Ingredient Fix this Saturday at 12:30pm/11:30c.